Edgar Degas

Paintings of charming dancers and colorful theatre scenes are in the center of Degas’ creation since the mid-1860s. They belong to a group of everyday paintings showing the life of the great city. In many of his creations, Degas criticizes the new, modern world. By unusual details, he highlights the isolation of the single.

The French painter born in 1834, who, according to the wish of his affluent family, would have become a lawyer, studied the old masters in Louvre and in the Italian museums. Classical history paintings and portraits belonged once to his theme and form portfolio. Only after his encounter of Eduard Manet and the regular exhibitions after 1874 with the impressionists, he changed his painting style. However, he never saw himself as representative of this style and insisted on his independence.

In his works, there are no landscapes and he did not use impressionist color and form decomposition. For Degas, humans were the dominant theme of his creation. The connection between his works and the impressionists resided in his attempt to retain the moment. His skills of rendering movement is shown in the dynamic paintings of horse racings and ballet scenes. By fast brush strokes of pastel colors and delicate contour lines, he captures his theme. Degas’ artistic base was the drawing, containing important influences of Japanese xylographs. He transposes his themes in painting as well as in graphic works.

As Degas’ eyesight was weakening toward the end of his life, he switched from painting to sculpture. He modeled statuettes of riders and dancers, thus staying faithful to his familiar themes. Degas dined in 1917 in Paris.